Template:POTD/2024-02-23
After the killing, he exposed himself to danger by remaining in Russia, and he left the country in the fall of 1878. He settled for a short time in Switzerland, then a favourite resort of revolutionary leaders, and after a few years came to London. He was already known in England by his book, Underground Russia, which had been published in London in 1882. In England he established the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom and the Russia Free Press, linking with Karl Pearson, Wilfrid Voynich and Charlotte Wilson. He was also an editor for the Society's house organ, Free Russia.
He followed up Underground Russia with a number of other works on the condition of the Russian peasantry, on Nihilism, and on the conditions of life in Russia. Stepniak constantly wrote and lectured, both in Great Britain and the United States, in support of his views. Russian anarchist leader Peter Kropotkin, who knew Stepniak personally, testified as to his character: "He was a stranger to the feeling of fear; it was as foreign to him as colors are to a person born blind. He was ready to risk his life every moment. Egotism as well as narrow partisanship was unknown to him; he believed that in a movement to defeat oppression there are always parties and factions with differences of opinion,— 'but let every party do its share in the work for the common good, the best it knows how'— he used to say — 'and the result will be much greater for the cause [...]' He also could not understand why there should be strife among the various parties, since all are involved in the struggle against a common enemy."Photograph credit: Elliott & Fry; restored by Adam Cuerden